[HN Gopher] The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
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       The Tyranny of the Rocket Equation
        
       Author : bhickey
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2024-02-03 19:40 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (newspaceeconomy.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (newspaceeconomy.ca)
        
       | atemerev wrote:
       | The best way to overcome the rocket equation is stop going up and
       | down gravity wells. Let's build orbital factories and habitats.
        
         | ben_w wrote:
         | That's not "overcoming", it's just working within its limits.
         | 
         | You can overcome the rocket equation by using non-rocket based
         | propulsion, such as solar sails, tethers (momentum exchange or
         | grounded), electrodynamic field propulsion, or (if anyone can
         | solve the huge number of issues even at the purely theoretical
         | level never mind practical) spacetime metric propulsion
         | including but not limited to Alcubierre's.
         | 
         | Also arguably by using the Oberth and slingshot effects, but
         | IMO those count as boosting what you can get from rockets, not
         | sure if they count as overcoming or not...
        
       | greenyoda wrote:
       | The phrase "tyranny of the rocket equation" seems to go back at
       | least as far as this 2012 NASA article:
       | 
       | http://web.archive.org/web/20230725181037/https://www.nasa.g...
       | 
       | More on the actual rocket equation can be found here:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovsky_rocket_equation
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-03 23:01 UTC)